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cadge

Flag: gbEnglishOxford New American Dictionary
cadge /kaj, kædʒ /
▸ verb [with object] British informal ask for or obtain (something to which one is not strictly entitled):
he eats whenever he can cadge a meal
[no object] they cadge, but timidly.
▸ noun Falconry a padded wooden frame on which hooded hawks are carried to the field.
[apparently an alteration of cage, perhaps confused with the dialect verb cadge ‘carry about’.]
– PHRASES
on the cadge informal
looking for an opportunity to obtain something without paying for it:
they're all liars and on the cadge.
– DERIVATIVES
cadger /ˈkajər, ˈkædʒər/ noun
– ORIGIN early 17th century (in the dialect sense ‘carry about’): back-formation from the noun cadger, which dates from the late 15th century, denoting (in northern English and Scots) an itinerant dealer, whence the verb sense ‘hawk, peddle’, giving rise to the current verb senses from the early 19th century.